Category Archives: Transhuman News

Theyre mostly politically incorrect and easy targets, so fraternities are getting blamed for COVID outbreaks on college campuses that are open. Should they be?

In todays Martin Center article, NC State student Megan Zogby argues that Greek groups are getting a bum rap.

She writes:

Some less-than-responsible students in fraternities and sororities have caused outbreaks, but so have non-Greek students throwing and attending parties. University officials, sometimes reluctant to enforce COVID-19 guidelines, havent lived up to their responsibility of enforcing rules to keep students and staff safe. Administrators cant point fingers at students without acknowledging their own failures to limit outbreaks.

Actually, housing for students in fraternities and sororities is less dense and therefore students there are somewhat less at risk than elsewhere, Zogby notes.

She concludes, If university officials are serious about their commitment to public health and safety, they need to consistently enforce rules and provide accurate information. That includes making hard decisions, even when it could hurt their budget.

Read more:
Are Fraternities to Blame for COVID on Campuses? - National Review

Its politically incorrect but true: Ehud Olmert is responsible for the haredi riots, and the radical Squad is responsible for the Capitol Hill invasion, just as Donald Trump was responsible for the Black Lives Matter riots.

Admittedly, the word partially should sit in front of the word responsible. But when historians assess our era, they will cross such wires insightfully. As dot-connectors deputized to reject partisan groupthink, they will link verbal violence with mob violence, spreading blame broadly. It makes sense. Shouldnt they and we hold those responsible for irresponsible rhetoric at least partially responsible?

Morally and legally, fouling the atmosphere isnt as bad as committing foul crimes. And false equivalences are no better than partisan blinders. But the historical docket is less forgiving than courts of law: quicker to convict, while sentencing only to eternal damnation, not actual incarceration.

There should be a self-imposed moratorium on trash-talking most people when they first die. We used to call it decency or menschlichkeit. Why upset this admittedly controversial but generous mans family?

To make the point crassly, its fair to snipe that Olmerts self-righteousness might be easier to take if he hadnt spent 16 months in the slammer. Today, he can defend himself. I would not make that jab upon his death, because it might hurt his family to read those words at that sensitive time.

Similarly, in the US, its obviously easier to see how overheated left-wing rhetoric fueled the summer riots that killed more than 26 and destroyed thousands of businesses, while blaming right-wing Trumpian hooligans for the Capitol invasion. Crossing wires emphasizes the wider problem, diffusing guilt widely despite many peoples certitude that their side is blameless and their opponents are evil.

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IN 1895, the French intellectual Gustave Le Bon published The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. Le Bon identified three keys to mob psychology: anonymity, contagion and suggestibility. Those elements he teased out 125 years ago to describe rioting masses explain todays virtual mass Internet bullying, too.

I know perfectly nice people who post perfectly awful posts online emboldened by anonymity, joining the pile-on, validated by everyone elses harshness. Note how many of Trumps Capitol Hill hooligans reject masks to fight coronavirus but hid behind masks to assail democracy.

Recently, I wrote a controversial article endorsing Trumps Senate conviction but suggesting Joe Biden pardon him as a healing gesture. The abuse I received was predictable and personal. When I responded to some attackers respectfully but unapologetically most continued to disagree but de-escalated. Sorry, I was perhaps caught in the moment, one wrote.

This is why Le Bon taught: The power of crowds is only to destroy.

The masses have never thirsted after truth, he warned. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master....

In crowds, it is stupidity and not mother wit that is accumulated, he realized. Why? Because a crowd thinks in images, making it intolerant because the shorthand of images forces everyone to deal in absolutes. After all, The stronger the belief, the greater its intolerance. Men dominated by a certitude cannot tolerate those who do not accept it.

Le Bon expected scholars to destroy chimeras partisan illusions, certitudes and monsters while politicians make use of them, proving that fanatics and the hallucinated create history.

Alas, our politics, our media, our social media, even todays hyper-politicized professors, favor the fanatics and the hallucinated, those mobilized by simplistic images and cemented in certitude. They are nevertheless the shrill minority. We, the silenced majority, are too passive: wringing our hands, furrowing our brows, letting the bullies reign.

WE MUST mobilize. Just as so many of us take responsibility for the environment by reducing our carbon footprints recycling, going green, reusing shopping bags believing our little household can make a difference in a world of big polluters, try reducing your partisan toxic carbon footprint. Every reduction helps.

First, avoid simplicity, seek complexity. When politics seems so black-and-white, when you cant conceive of anything good about their leader or anything bad about yours, check your arrogance. Most political positions are compromises, hedges; if its all black-and-white without any gray think self-critically.

Second, resist joining the cancel culture against rivals while creating a call-out culture among your allies. Confront your sides bullies. Spend more time policing your own than others, not to enforce unanimity but to acknowledge complexity and cultivate decency.

And third, find people in your community who voted the wrong way, then dont just talk to them but listen to them, generously. Try understanding their perspective, bringing humble pie to the conversation, not the usual red meat. A little humility, a little less certitude, goes far.

Ultimately: individuals resist crowds; the idiosyncratic counters fanatics, and mature democrats see the realists three-dimensional mosaic, not the hallucinators one-dimensional blueprint.

My father, Bernard Dov Troy, raised us on pitgamim, lovely Jewish aphorisms. He particularly loves: Who are wise? Those who learn from everyone! Too many today learn only from those who agree with them. Lets master this rabbinic teaching to improve politics, culture, society, democracy, while saving our souls and improving our moods.

The writer is a distinguished scholar of North American history at McGill University and the author of nine books on American history and three on Zionism. His book Never Alone: Prison, Politics and My People, coauthored with Natan Sharansky, was just published by PublicAffairs of Hachette.

Excerpt from:
Amid political riots, we need to learn from other points of view -opinion - The Jerusalem Post

(February 2, 2021 / JNS) President Joe Bidens foreign policy and national security team reflects a resurgence of the U.S. State Departments worldview. To avoid past mistakes, an examination of this worldview and its track record is thus in order.

In 1948, the State Department-led Washingtons opposition to the recognition of the newly established Jewish state, contending that Israel would be helpless against the expected Arab military assault, would be pro-Soviet, would undermine U.S.-Arab relations, destabilize the Middle East, threaten the U.S. oil supply and cause severe long-term damage to U.S. interests. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Lovett claimed that recognizing the Jewish state prematurely would be buying a pig in a poke.

During the 1950s, the United States courted Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, considering him a potential ally and extending non-military aid. Meanwhile, Egypt evolved into a key ally of the USSR, supporting anti-Western elements in Africa, intensifying anti-U.S. sentiments among Arabs and attempting to topple every single pro-U.S. Arab regime.

In 1978-79, the United States betrayed the pro-U.S. shah of Iran, while embracing Ayatollah Khomeini, including intelligence sharing during the initial months of the Khomeini regime, under the assumption that he was controllable and seeking freedom, democracy and positive ties with Washington.

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In 1980-1990, the United States collaborated with Saddam Hussein, including intelligence-sharing, supplying dual-use systems and extending $5 billion loan guarantees. The assumption was that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This policy was perceived by Saddam as a green light to invade Kuwait, as documented by the July 25, 1990 meeting between Saddam and the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, April Gillespie, eight days before the invasion, when she asserted (reflecting the position of the State Department) that an invasion of Kuwait was an inter-Arab issue.

Between 1993 and 2000, the U.S. administration hailed PLO chairman Yasser Arafat as a messenger of peace, worthy of the Nobel peace prize and annual U.S. foreign aid, ignoring his annihilationist ambitions, as reflected by his 1959 and 1964 Fatah and PLO charters, hate-education system and intensified terrorism.

In 2009, the United States embraced the anti-U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, ignoring its terrorist nature and defining it as a political, secular entity. Thus, the United States turned a cold shoulder toward pro-U.S. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, paving the road for the Muslim Brotherhood ascension to power in 2012-13, a blow to all pro-U.S. Arab countries.

Until the eruption of the 2011 civil war in Syria, the State Department considered Syrian President Bashar Assad a reformer and a potential moderate due to his background as an ophthalmologist in London and his marriage to a British woman. Similarly, his father, Hafez Assad (the butcher from Damascus) was regarded as a man of his word, a credible negotiator, justifying Israels giveaway of the strategically critical Golan Heights.

In 2011, the State Department was a key engine behind the U.S.-led NATO military offensive which toppled Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi, notwithstanding his dismantling of Libyas nuclear infrastructure, fervent war on Islamic terrorism and providing the U.S. with unique counter-terror intelligence. The toppling of Qaddafi transformed Libya into a platform of civil war and global Islamic terrorism.

In 2011, the Washington, D.C., foreign policy and national security establishment welcomed the tectonic eruption of violence on the Arab street as a march toward democracy, peaceful-coexistence, Facebook and youth revolutionsan Arab Spring.

However, in reality, it was a ruthless Arab Tsunami, exposing endemic intra-Arab and intra-Muslim terrorism, subversion and violent power strugglestribal, ethnic, religious, ideological, local and regional.

In 2015, irrespective of Irans fanatical, repressive and megalomaniacal ideology and systematic perpetration of war and terrorism, the architects of the Iran nuclear accord provided Irans ayatollahs with a $150 billion bonanza. They were guided by the assumption that the ayatollahs were credible partners for negotiation, amenable to peaceful coexistence and influence-sharing with their Arab Sunni neighbors. Moreover, the United States disappointed most Iranians by renouncing a military (regime-change) option against the ruthless and lawless regime in Tehran.

In view of this track record, which highlights a systematic gap between Middle East reality and State Department policyPresident Bidens Middle East team may benefit from the studies of the late professor Elie Kedourie (London School of Economics and Political Science), an iconic Middle East historian whose politically-incorrect books and articles have been vindicated by history.

According to Kedourie (The Chatham House Version): One of the simplest and yet most effective means known to mankind of keeping in touch with reality is to contrast what people say with what they do. Alien conventions and unfamiliar speech add to the confusion. All too often assumptions are not tested on the pulse of experience, they remain mere abstract doctrines, and men are taken up and praised for what they say rather than for what they are.

In 2021, 10 years following the eruption of the Arab tsunamiand contrary to the expectations of the State Departmentthe Arab street is still dominated by its intrinsic 1,400-year-old instability, unpredictability, violent intolerance and despotism. Nor has the tsunami reached its peak.

Such a policy failure can be attributedif one employs professor Kedouries theoriesto successive and cumulative manifestations of illusion, misjudgment, maladroitness and failure (ibid, p. ix).

Will President Bidens foreign policy and national security team, dealing with Irans ayatollahs and the Middle East at largeepicenters of global proliferation of ballistic and nuclear technologies, as well as Islamic terrorismlearn from critical past errors, or repeat them?

At stake is regional and global stability, including the national and homeland security of the United States.

Yoram Ettinger is a former ambassador and head of Second Thought: A U.S.-Israel Initiative.

This article was first published by The Ettinger Report.

See more here:
Will Biden avoid the mistakes of the past? - JNS.org

The Hole in the Wall of the World

Believe nothing you hear and no more than half of what you see. toilet stall in Hitlers bunker suite

O, theres a hole in the wall of the worldwhere antlered conspiracy theoristsconvene to wonder who what where and why like newspaper conspiracy fearistswho get Deep Throated by the FBI,one unknits the record the other purled.

Where did Roger gets the stones to call formartial law so soon after his pardon,like a whistledog foaming and rabidand so anxious to show us his hard-on the kind of guy whod blow up the DavidHotel and blame it all on Sir Balfour?

And now we hear that Enrique Tarrio,the chicken chokin Aladdin singinProud Boy informant, was no KKK(Roger Stones bud? oy, my ears are ringin)but rainbow burnin head of GayGayGay (*)straight out some alt-right South Beach barrio.

A conspiracy theorist might wonderwhy the feds ignored mamas proudest boywhen he called to say the insurrectionwould be vile, loud and could well destroythe shiny uribus plenum sectionon the Hill, another intel blunder.

Even Tarrio, polishing his lampuntil the genie came out with a whooshto grant his wish, knew something was not rightwhen they drew slow police response no dooshfrom the left he knew had Blacks come to fightthe jackboots would have been there to stamp, stamp.

But not so a conspiracy fearistwhod have seen the same events and exclaimedwe need new domestic terrorism lawsto stop the few, the proud mentally maimedwho come dressed as Injuns and Trumpian squawsand mad extras out of Mommie Dearest.

Glad grads of the Leni Riefenstahl school,who dole out the Gods eye view, and get laidby their sources, and fluff up their careersat the expense of freedom, over paidparts of the problem who toy with our fears,roll for the latest presidential Fool.

O, theres a hole in the wall of the worldwhere our illusions are seeping awayand evolutions come to a standstill,and human consciousness is held at bayby theorists and fearists fighting untilone unknits the record the other purled.

(*) No actual feelings were hurt during the making of this stanza, as Enrique Tarrio says he is opposed to Politically Correct people and gays. The suggestion is that because the Proud Boys got their name from a mamas boy song (Proud of Your Boy) from the musical Aladdin and it is said, by politically incorrect people (and incorrectly so, if Im correct), that only men who are gay like musicals. Or pretend to be gay, in order to advance their careers a gold at the end of the rainbow kind of thing. Tsk-tsk.

Excerpt from:
The Hole in the Wall of the World - CounterPunch.org - CounterPunch

Really! I do feel for the farmersand Punjab, which is usually perceived through standard clichs balle balle, bhangra, butter chicken and Baisakhi while the states myriad problems lie unresolved. Now, the Punjab issue has hit the headlines, particularly after the violence that took place on Indias 72nd Republic Day. But so many days later, citizens are still in the dark. So far, we have theories, accusations, anger and frustration. But no credible answers. Who does one believe? Which version is the more authentic one? Was there just one villain or several or none? The rogue tractor what was that act of craziness all about? And the guy who clambered up a pole to hoist the Nishan Sahib flag who put him up to it? Too many contrary theories floating around, and as it generally happens, you believe the one that suits your thinking and politics.

A Sikh friend from Chandigarh was so anguished by what happened, she called to say, Sikhs stand for valour and bravery. How can they be rioting? Precisely!

There is one thing though that everybody agrees on the storming of the Red Fort is unforgivable and the biggest blot on the farmers protests. We are unlikely to ever forget that deeply disturbing and highly shocking act that severely marred January 26 a day one associates with national pride, triumph and celebration. Ironically, all those glued to the one news channel that had monopoly rights over the telecast of the parade had no clue what was going on simultaneously not so far away from Rajpath. Doordarshan was dutifully showing them inspiring visuals of energetic schoolchildren dancing and singing lustily, or focusing on the awesome Air Force display in which women pilots (Bhawana Kanth and Swati Rathore) thrilled the cheering crowds.

But less than ten kilometres away, utter mayhem had been unleashed! And heres the thing nobody knew! Nobody, that is, but a couple of insiders, who had apparently tipped off media colleagues. By the time images started to flash on different screens, disbelief and horror rapidly replaced the euphoria of watching the grand march past.

Nothing made sense where did the tractors suddenly come from? Who diverted the route of the protest? Why did nobody report this movement of tractors to authorities?

There is something thats definitely black in the lentils. The real story of Punjabs abject decline from being one of the most prosperous states of India to its present pathetic low is being buried under staged and politically instigated acts of defiance. Punjab has been reduced to Haryanas poor cousin. A report says the average Haryanvi is 1.5 times richer than the average Punjabi. Battling drug abuse, rising unemployment and a loss of morale, Punjab is in denial. Chief minister Amarinder Singh, for all his bombast and machismo, has not been able to haul his state out of the ditch.

The revolting turn of events on Republic Day, allegedly led by a publicity-seeking actor called Deep Sidhu, shows how easy it is to stir up trouble and manipulate optics. It is important to know who is behind this treacherous act. Those anti-national rowdies were not acting alone. They showed unusual gumption and daring when they stormed police barricades. Could they have done so without the tacit support of someone very powerful, someone, whod handle the messy aftermath?

There will always be conflicting versions about which group did what. We may never know. But at least, let us not abandon our own common sense and damn the wrong people. There was a method behind the madness. It was well orchestrated by shrewd tacticians playing for high stakes. But who? And if it was really and truly nothing but a few enraged farmers taking their protest to the next level on their own, let us pay equal attention to the reason for that rage. Why did the government not consult farmers unions and state governments before pushing the contentious farm laws through Parliament via a voice vote? It was this high-handedness that upped the rancour meter.

Our intelligence agencies have a lot of explaining to do in this case its incredible that nobody was aware of the movement of tractors. Tractors! Not tricycles. Not much bheja required for spotting these lumbering vehicles moving towards one of the most protected, high risk sites in the capital. Yet it happened! Hmmm ajeeb kahani. Very ajeeb, indeed! Thousands of policemen, anti-riot squads, and CPRF could not prevent a few hundred rioters from barging into the Red Fort! Socho bhi aisa ho sakta hai?

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

See original here:
Republic Day violence: Theres definitely black in the lentils - The Times of India Blog

Dr. Daniel Sutter has been the Charles G. Koch Professor of Economics with the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy in Troy Universitys Sorrell College of Business since 2011. He's also a contributor to Heartland's blog, the Freedom Pub.

Americans have always been able to achieve based their talents and efforts. Yet several conservatives now argue that liberal policies have entrenched an elite class. The COVID-19 policy response provides some support for this argument.

I have always found economic class analyses unhelpful. Class theorists see society composed of groups, not individuals. Modern economics begins analysis with the individual. We explain group action based on the beliefs, incentives, and actions of individual members.

Karl Marx assumed that ones place in the economy determined ones views and goals. Yet this ignores the differences amongst people. Any given workplace will include persons at different points in life with different backgrounds and life goals. They are unlikely to all think the same. Even capitalists differ significantly and include limousine liberals advocating for more taxes and spending.

What is the conservative argument that America now has a class elite? F.H. Buckley offers one argument in Republican Workers Party concerning a highly educated liberal new class. The dominant class goes to the best schools, obtaining the best credentials. Professor Buckley writes,

The New Class isnt composed of the super-wealthy, the top 0.1 percent of earners Rather, its the rest of the top 10 percent, the professionals earning more than $200,000 a year, whose toast always falls butter side up and who pass on their advantages to their children. They are adept in the hyper-technical rules and ever-changing Newspeak employed to exclude the backward, the eccentric, the politically incorrect.

America has long exhibited cultural differences, and as Charles Murray observes in Coming Apart the differences are growing. Yet for differences to harden into a distinct governing class, there must be barriers to joining. I am unconvinced. Consider J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, which describes the personal element of social relations. Mr. Vance escaped his upbringing and went to Yale Law School.

COVID-19 policy responses have seemingly reflected these alleged class distinctions. Urbanized blue states New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and California instituted the most punishing lockdowns and have yet to fully reopen. Rural red states like North and South Dakota never issued stay-at-home orders. Higher paying jobs have been more likely to allow remote working while lower income jobs require in-person work or have been lost with business closures.

A recent survey from Morning Consult documents this disparate impact. Participants were asked in December 2020 if they were better or worse off than in 2019 on seven dimensions: mental health, personal finances, job security, take-home pay, physical health, personal life, and work-life balance. A score was tallied by subtracting the percentage reporting worse from the percentage reporting better. Positive scores signal improvement, negative scores deterioration.

Overall Americans are worse off on all seven dimensions, with women faring worse than men on each dimension. Impacts by education and income are most revealing. Americans without a college degree had negative scores on each component, while persons with post-graduate degrees had positive scores on each. Persons with incomes less than $50,000 are worse off across the board while those earning over $100,000 improved on every dimension except mental health.

I have personally been struck by the disparities since last March when the nations most prestigious universities were the first to move classes online. Online education requires a functioning power grid. Elite professors planned to protect themselves while relying on other Americans to face exposure to operate power plants, pick up the garbage, and deliver goods ordered online.

Our personal response to COVID-19 depends on fundamental life values like self-preservation and facing lifes risks. I respect people and would never denigrate anyones choices. Lockdowns, however, have imposed some persons most desired course of action (Professor Buckleys New Class) on all of us, harming millions. It certainly raises the possibility of a governing elite class.

[Originslly posted on YellowHammerNews]

Is America Now a Class-Based Society? was last modified: February 2nd, 2021 by Daniel Sutter

See the rest here:
Is America Now a Class-Based Society? | The Freedom Pub - Somewhat Reasonable - Heartland Institute

MADISON, Wis. More than 37,000 absentee ballots were counted from Wisconsin voters who returned an application form ahead of the November presidential election, a mailing that was a compromise by the politically divided state elections commission.

Democrats wanted to send the mailing to all registered voters, whether they had requested an absentee ballot or not. Republicans on the commission ultimately prevailed in sending the mailing only to 2.6 million people who did not already have an absentee ballot application on file.

It's impossible to know whether the 37,481 people who returned the application form and later cast an absentee ballot would have done so had they not received the mailing. Wisconsin voters do not register by party, so it's also impossible to know how many of those voters were Republicans or Democrats.

However, Democrats were more aggressive in promoting absentee voting for Joe Biden while former President Donald Trump and his allies argued against absentee voting, saying before the election that voting by mail was rife with fraud.

Biden won Wisconsin by fewer than 21,000 votes.

After Trump's loss, he argued unsuccessfully for tossing more than 238,000 absentee ballots that he said were illegally cast in Milwaukee and Dane counties in a failed attempt to overturn Biden's win. Trump's arguments were rejected by the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump did not single out absentee ballots returned using the application form sent by the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Some people who received the informational mailing contacted the elections commission to complain, saying they didn't agree with voters being told how to vote absentee, the commission said in a report prepared for its Wednesday meeting. However, many other calls were supportive, the commission said.

"For many, the mailing provided a source of trusted information about election procedures in an overwhelming and changing environment," the report said.

In Wisconsin, nearly 2 million people voted absentee in the November election, driven by concerns over the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. That was roughly 60% of the total turnout of almost 3.3 million voters.

While far exceeding the historical average, the total absentee votes cast did not reach the level it did in the April primary early in the pandemic when almost 75% of voters cast ballots absentee.

Of those who voted absentee in November, nearly 41% returned their ballot by mail while 19% returned their ballot at the polls before Election Day, the elections commission said.

The mailer with the absentee ballot application was sent Sept. 1. During the first week after it was sent, more than 25,000 voters registered online and more than 47,000 requested an absentee ballot, the report said.

Ultimately, 40,686 applications using the form from the mailing were approved with absentee ballots sent. Of those, 37,481 were returned and counted, the report said.

Also, of the 2.6 million mailings, 231,533 were returned as undeliverable. The commission explains in its report that this is partly due to the fact that the commission directed that the letter not be forwarded. There are several reasons why the Postal Service can't deliver mail to an address, including if a person had moved, the address is not an exact match or incorrect.

Of the undelivered letters, 41% of the voters did not participate in the presidential election, the report said. The majority, 57%, did vote. Of that group of 132,293 voters, more than 100,000 of them registered at a new address before voting, the report said.

___

Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbauerAP

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More than 37000 Wisconsin absentee ballots tied to mailing - Minneapolis Star Tribune